Derek Forss – Searching for Infinity

Derek Forss will be presenting his talk ‘Landscape – Searching for Infinity’

Derek Forss commenced photography in 1959 with the purchase of an Agfa Silette camera, but it was not until 1976 that he obtained his first film SLR camera. He turned professional in 1979 and purchased a Hasselblad 500CM to start his own Picture Library of Landscape & Architectural scenes of the British Isles.

Today he has more than 100,000 images, many digital, which are used by major publishing houses. When it comes to picture taking Derek is a traditionalist. Whilst he keeps abreast of modern developments, he does not regard digital imaging as a substitute for poor photography. On a shoot he usually keeps his camera equipment down to a minimum.

With the generous support of Olympus UK he organises Digital Photography Holidays in collaboration with HF Holidays, for whom he leads Photography Tours that have been featured on ITV, and teaches photography at Farncombe Estate in the Cotswolds and Knuston Hall in Northamptonshire.

He has written articles for ‘Outdoor Photography’ magazine, ‘Amateur Photographer’ and ‘In Britain’. Autumn 2001 saw the publication by Countryside Books of ‘The Landscapes of Surrey’, 2002 ‘Nottinghamshire: A Portrait in Colour’ and 2004 Northamptonshire: The County in Colour.

His lectures and audio visual shows have been presented nationwide and currently he is preparing on what promises to be a stunning new show ‘The Great British Landscape’, which will map through landscapes and architecture our history throughout the last 2,000 years.

Off duty he likes nothing more than a night at the opera and to get away from it all, much as he loves his own native Surrey, he concedes that there is no better place than the Lake District.